


warm me up

by Misila



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Pining, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16480262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misila/pseuds/Misila
Summary: They're trapped in that stupid cave until it stops snowing and it's all Haruka's fault.





	warm me up

 

 

 

 

Among the things Rin knows are the following points.

One: it's snowing.

Two: it's cold.

Three: it's _so damn cold_.

The list of things he ignores is way longer, nearly endless; but the more urgent ones are the exact temperature (somewhere around the absolute zero, most likely; but he has no way to measure it), when it will stop snowing and whether there are people looking for them. There is no way Sousuke doesn't notice Rin is missing, but the fact that it's both him and Haruka who went off on their own _together_ makes it less likely that the others worry about them being out there in the middle of a blizzard.

(Now that Rin stops to think about it, he hopes it's not _Sousuke_ the one everyone is looking for.)

"This is your fault," he grunts, and Haruka glances up from his lap expressly to glare at him.

"It wasn't me who decided to go to the higher slopes."

"Not the one who suggested going back when it got cloudy, either," Rin snaps back.

"You just wanted to go back because you wouldn't keep up with me."

"Like hell—... See? That's exactly why we're here."

"Because if it were for you we'd still be looking for shelter?"

Rin considers throwing Haruka a ski for a couple of seconds.

But he has to admit it was his friend who spotted the hole among the rocks, too small to call it a cave; and they may be soaked and freezing and with no way to communicate with their friends, but...

But...

No, their situation isn't close to anything Rin expected from this trip, no matter how he looks at it.

It gets dark awfully fast in the mountains, Rin muses. Outside the cave, the world is made of layers of black over black, and he is only able to make out Haruka's features thanks to the light of his phone, useless for anything else with no signal; he frowns when he notices his friend continously curling and uncurling his fingers, his own scowl deepening.

"Are you cold?"

Haruka glances up again, but this time his glare is mellowed by the chattering of his teeth.

"Aren't you?"

Rin supposes his lips aren't too different a shade of blue from Haruka's, but he smiles.

"Give me your hands."

Haruka's eyes widen the tiniest bit, and it's only then that it hits Rin what his words entail.

He prays it's too dark for Haruka to notice his blush, or better— too cold for his cheeks to look as warm as they feel. And, because Rin isn't about to chicken out now, not after refusing to back down from a challenge just due to a little blizzard, upon taking his gloves off he reaches for Haruka's left hand and pulls at the thick fabric around his middle finger, breathing hitching as he catches a glimpse of the reddened, swollen skin.

Rin isn't stupid enough to try pressing his palm against his cheek to check how cold it is, but Haruka's is _freezing_. Even without the glove, he can't completely curl his fingers into a fist; and upon taking the other glove off Rin confirms Haruka's right is just as cold.

So he presses Haruka's hands together, holds them between his own the best he can.

"I can't feel them," Haruka mutters, looking at their hands— almost too quietly for Rin to make out his words.

(But Rin hears them, and he swears on his life they're tinged with disappointment and half an apology.)

He slides his thumbs across the back of Haruka's hands, then back to the groove between the thumb and index. Haruka exhales, a small sigh that forms a small cloud between Rin and him, glances towards the entrance of the cave, at the snow relentlessly falling.

Beneath black locks, his blue eyes reflect the faint glow from Rin's phone, the paleness of his silhouette broken only by his blue lips, by his pink nose.

And the darkness, Rin's ally tonight, makes it safe to stare, to drink the sight before him and memorise a face he already knows by heart in this new light.

"If you think about it, snow is water, too," Haruka comments after a long silence.

Rin blinks, takes a couple of seconds to decipher his friend's words.

"If you strip and dive into the snow, Haru, I swear—..."

Haruka huffs. "I'm not stupid."

But the twitch of his fingers gives him away.

On instinct Rin grabs his fingers, trying to squeeze some warmth into them.

"It's no wonder you suck at skiing, with that mindset... I bet you're even wearing your swimsuit."

Haruka narrows his eyes at him.

"So what? It works as underwear."

He frowns at Rin's laughter, not as offended as he looks bewildered.

"You're so weird," Rin mutters, thumbs zigzagging between Haruka's knuckles, voice laced with affection. "The hotel has a pool, right? With water—... Liquid water, I mean. We have to swim there before going back to Tokyo."

Haruka nods, smiles small and sincere. He caresses Rin's fingers and nearly halts his breathing altogether.

Outside it keeps snowing, freezing wind blowing in the distance.

"...Rin."

"What?"

"I can feel my hands now."

Haruka's tone is innocent, levelled and matter-of-fact.

And it hurts.

"A-ah, yeah... Sorry, I, uh—..."

But Haruka grabs Rin's fingers, halts his retreat with only a glance.

"They're still cold."

He jerks his head away, jaw clenched and lips pressed together— and the faintest pink touches his cheeks in spite of the blizzard.

So Rin tries his best to swallow his heart back down, to not choke on it as his fingers intertwine with Haruka's, shaking out of everything but cold and yet...

Grinning.

"Leave it to me."

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy (a bit belated) Halloween!
> 
> This fic isn't quite Halloween-ish, but today was reaaally cold, and I could only think about this. ~~Besides, Rin making Haru hot is canon.~~
> 
> Please tell me your thoughts!


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